Out of about 18 million students in the U.S., only one million are attending the respectable research universities, where spending per student is the highest. On the other end of the spectrum, at community colleges, there are six million students competing for an ever-smaller instructional budget. Students' portion of the costs is high and getting higher everywhere (from 2006 data, the latest available):

Community colleges: students pay 30% of the cost of their education

Public colleges and research universities: students pay 50%

Private research universities: students pay 55.8%

Private colleges that offer bachelors degrees: students pay 63.55

Colleges that offer masters' degrees: students pay 83.6%

Worst of all of this data is the fact that tuitions are increasing at far greater rates than spending per student is increasing, in most cases, according to the study, while tuition has increased between 12.5% and 29.8% over the past decade, it should have only increased around 2% at public research universities and private colleges, and declined around 3% at other public universities and community colleges, were it to reflect the change in spending per student.